1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable device, and more particularly to a foldable portable device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a foldable portable device constituted of two casings, one having a display unit and the other having an operating unit, which are coupled to each other with a hinge to open and close the casings. The foldable portable device is convenient to be carried in a compact form as it is folded to have the display unit and the operating unit closed to face each other.
When the foldable portable device is in the closed state, if the edges of the two casings coupled with the hinge are placed substantially at the same place, it is then difficult for the user to open the portable device one-handed.
To address this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-159390 discloses a portable device having the casing formed with a slope near the hinge to enable the user to easily open the portable device one-handed.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-215180 discloses a portable device having the casing with the display unit that can be turned with a sliding mechanism. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-319043 discloses a portable device having the casing to which a display unit is separately attached so that the display unit can be turned. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-207961 discloses a portable device having the edge of the casing with the display unit bigger than the edge of the casing with the operating unit.
The above-described portable devices in the related art have problems below. The portable device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-159390 is adapted to catch the user's fingers and/or thumb on the closed casings in the direction of opening them. However, the portable device has no means to make the casing with the operating unit to be firmly held on the user's hand, and the portable device is then prone to be dropped in response to the user's force to open the casings one-handed. Moreover, the portable device has an asymmetric receding part on the casing, which makes the appearance of the portable device imbalanced.
The portable devices described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2004-215180 and 2003-319043 are adapted to allow the casing with the display unit or the display unit itself to turn to be placed in either vertically or horizontally; however, there are no concepts of facilitating easy opening of the two casings. Therefore, when the casing with the display unit or the display unit itself is turned, the turned casing or the turned display unit cannot catch the user's fingers and/or thumb to open the two casings one-handed.
The portable device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-207961 has the casing with the display unit bigger than the casing with the operating unit for enabling the user to view the display unit in the state where the two casing are closed; however, there are no concepts of facilitating easy opening of the two casings. Therefore, the part of the casing with the display unit protruding from the casing with the operating unit cannot catch the user's fingers and/or thumb to open the two casings one-handed.